Foreword

Renowned international automotive brands such as Toyota, BWM, General Motors have established plants in China to manufacturer cars for years since late 20th century. Each year, millions of new cars assembled in China are loaded onto shipping containers and sent to other countries around the world. So it's likely the car you are driving now is made in China.

China per se is one of the largest automotive market in terms of demand and population, so domestic brands like Geely, BYD, Chery, Haval among a few have been striving to make quality cars with good design and selling at affordable prices. 

Coupled with Chinese government's policy to promote China brands and encourage car export, buying cars from China has never been more easier than before.In this article, we're going to explain to you the process of buying cars from AutoFromChina.

Find Cars on autofromchina.com

First and foremost, finding a trusted place that sells cars is critical. AutoFromChina would be the best platform where you can browse hundreds of cars(New or Used) for sale from various car brands in China. Car types include sedan, SUV, bus, truck and others. We work closely with car brands as well as dealers in China to offer various brands and models.

So all you need to do is go to www.autofromchina.com , and you will be presented all cars that are listed for sale. You can browse through cars by filters, or if you have specific make and model in your mind, just type the name in the search box and you will be taken to the product detail page.

If you couldn't find the car on our website, just contact us and tell us your need. We can help you source the cars or recommend cars you might be interested.

Price and Purchase Details

Please be noted that in default prices listed on AutoFromChina are with FOB Incoterms. That being said, AutoFromChina will cover costs associated with custom clearance and terminal charges in China. All cost incurred after cars loaded onto shipping vessels will be borne by buyers.

If buyers are not familiar with seafreight shipment, we can handle shipment for them to help ship the cars they buy to the destination country. In that case, the Incoterm would be changed to CIF, which includes shippingcost and insurance(basic coverage), so the quotations will change accordingly.

Inbound custom clearance and car registration in buyers' country will be handled by buyers. So please consult with your country's customs and agent to make sure you know how to import cars before you buy from AutoFromChina.

Let us give you an example so you have a better picture of how your landing cost will be:
Say you are from Nigeria and have set your eyes on Chery Jetour X90 SUV. The car is currently sold at 15000 USD, FOB price. You want to buy one, but don't know how to ship the car from China. So we will have our shipping partner ship the car for you. 

Say the POL(Port of Laoding, or port in original country) is Shanghai, China, and the POD(Port of Discharge, or port in destination country) is Tincan, Nigeria, and the current shipping cost(including insurance) is 2400 USD for a 20GP shipping container. So the CIF price would be the total of FOB price plus shipping cost(including insurance), which is 17400USD.

When the shipping vessel arrives at Port Tincan, you will be notified and you or your agent needs to submit paperworks to clear the car and register the car. Additional cost might be incurred in this process, which includes but not limited to THC(terminal handling charge), IDC(import declaration charge), Import Duty, etc.Let's sayd the total cost is 800USD.

To sum up, the landing cost to receive the car in Nigeria would be 18200USD(15000 + 2400 + 800). The same cost structure applies to buyers from other countries, though the actual cost might vary depending on their location and policies made by their own countries.

Placing an order

Now that you know what your landing cost would be and decide to buy, you can proceed to place an order. But first make sure you have already signed up for an account. You can sign up with your own email or even with your facebook or google account.          


Once you are signed in, search for the car and go to the product detail page. The page list FOB price for the car along with stock and shipping cost detail. But be noted that the shipping cost is a rough estimate. For exact shipping charge, please consult with us before you make payment.   


After you choose how many units you will buy and the country you want the car to be shipped to, you can go ahead and click "Buy Now" button, and you will be taken to a new page where you will need to fill out your shipping information. Those information you filled in will also be used for documents like Commercial Invoice, Packing List, B/L, so please make sure they are correct, or you might have problem clearing Customs in your country.          


After your shipping information is filled out, you should choose the payment method. At this juncture we only accept payment through Wire Transfer or West Union.          

Making Payment

Once you hit "Place Your Order", you will be taken to payment page where you will need to fill in your payment information like MTCN number or bank slip reference number. Normally you will need PI(Proforma Invoice) from us so you can use it to apply for payment from your bank.

It takes roughly 3-7 days for the payment to be received in our bank account. We will notify you when the payment is confirmed by our bank account.           

Order Preparation

Once we confirm payment, we will start preparing the car you purchase. Normally it takes 7-10 days for the car to be assembled. If the car has ready-made stock, then it might take 1-2 days.

When the car is ready, we will inspect the car by ourselves and share car details with you, which include Car registration documents (used car), car production conformity certificate (new car)，paranamic video around the car, exterior pictures, interior pictures.  

Fulfillment

The next step would be to transport cars to a designated port. If you will handle seafreight shipment, then we will order a truck to transport the cars to your designated warehouse after we confirm shipping schedule with your shipping agent. If you need us to handle seafreight, then we will transport to our shipping agent's warehouse according to our shipping agent's schedule.

When cars arrive at warehouses in the port, we will start preparing documents for custom clearance. Once the cars are loaded into containers and be towed to container yeard(CY), we will notify customs broker to prepare for customs clearance.Normally customs clearance in China will be conducted 2-3 days before shipping vessel departs the port.  

We will keep you updated every step of the process so you know where your car is, what's needed to be done. The lead time from POL to POD varies depending on factors such as where POD is, the available vessel type that ships the car, shipping carrier's schedule, etc.

The next step would be to transport cars to a designated port. If you will handle seafreight shipment, then we will order a truck to transport the cars to your designated warehouse after we confirm shipping schedule with your shipping agent. If you need us to handle seafreight, then we will transport to our shipping agent's warehouse according to our shipping agent's schedule.

When cars arrive at warehouses in the port, we will start preparing documents for custom clearance. Once the cars are loaded into containers and be towed to container yeard(CY), we will notify customs broker to prepare for customs clearance.Normally customs clearance in China will be conducted 2-3 days before shipping vessel departs the port.  



                      

Customs Clearance in Destination Country

When shipping vessel arrives at your destination country's port(POD), you will be notified to proceed with inbound custom clearance. Like we articulated earlier, this will be handled by you as a buyer, or your customs broker.
 

Last Words

At this point of time, you should be pretty familiar with buying cars from China. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach us so you can go ahead and place an order on our website.
Happy Buying at www.autofromchina.com